The FM multiplex broadcasting is widely known in which the subdata such as character information is generally superimposed for the transmission purpose to the free area of the frequency band.
The character data broadcast after it is multiplexed can be demodulated by a character decoder provided in a radio receiver and it is then displayed in a small size display unit provided, for example, within a radio receiver.
As the character data, a character program, for example, composed of plural pages is repeatedly broadcast, covering the programs from a program broadcasting the contents not related at all to contents of broadcast programs such as weather forecast and traffic information to a program broadcasting contents in relation to the broadcast contents such as name of music piece, name of performer, program contents and name of the DJ of the broadcast program.
Particularly, as the music piece information as program information, character information including the name of the music piece and the name of the artist is broadcast simultaneously with the music piece as the main information when a certain music piece is broadcast. In general, this music name information is transmitted when the music name is started to be transmitted, and moreover such music name information is broadcast for several times while it is being broadcast.
Various kinds of recording media and corresponding recording/reproducing apparatuses are developed and particularly, a medium known as a minidisc which allows a user to freely record audio data is also popular in recent years. A music piece broadcast from an FM radio station can be recorded by utilizing such minidisc system and therefore the minidisc system integrally comprising the receiving function and recording/reproducing function is also developed, considering such sophisticated performance. Alternatively, even if these are not integrated, it is also possible to conduct the recording through connection by transmission cable of the tuner and recording/reproducing apparatus.
Moreover, in the case of the minidisc, the management information called a User Table of Content (hereinafter referred to as U-TOC) is recorded, in addition to the main data such as a music piece, for management of the data recorded area on which recording is performed by a user and the free area as the recordable area.
The recording area is discriminated during the recording operation by referring to the U-TOC and the reproducing area is discriminated by referring to the U-TOC during the reproducing operation.
Namely, each recorded music piece is controlled in the data unit as a program (hereafter "program" is called "track") in the U-TOC with recording of the start address and end address, etc. Moreover, in regard to the free area as the recordable area, the start address and end address, etc. are recorded considering this area as the area used for data recording later.
Moreover, since each music piece on the disk is managed by such U-TOC, a music piece can be edited only by updating the U-TOC.
For example, editing processes such as the dividing function to divide one track to a plurality of tracks, the combining function to combine a plurality of tracks to one track, the moving function to change the track number given depending on the track sequence for reproduction and the deleting function to delete unnecessary tracks (also called the erasing function) may be easily and quickly performed.
In addition, it is also possible that a name of music piece is registered as a track name for each track and thereby it can be displayed, for example, at the time of reproduction.
Thereby, a user can edit one or a plurality of tracks once recorded on the disk by utilizing such functions and can also enjoy generation of a personal original disk.
Particularly, the recorded music pieces can be edited very easily and conveniently.
In the case of recording of the broadcast audio signal to a minidisc, the audio data to be recorded to the disk by such recording operation is processed, after the recording, as one track. For example, when the air-check is conducted for the broadcasting of 60 minutes, one track in the length of 60 minutes is formed on the disk.
In the case of a minidisc system, queue search is enabled in track units, but high speed access to the intermediate part of the contents recorded as one track has been impossible.
Therefore, here rises a problem that operation for the reproduction is difficult when it is requested to reproduce a particular music piece from the broadcast program recorded by a user.
For example, even when 10 music pieces are broadcast during the broadcasting of 60 minutes, since contents of 60 minutes are considered as one track, queue search to each music piece is impossible. Moreover, the audio signals of narration and commercial forming a program are also recorded between music pieces.
In addition, a user does not know where is the music piece which he wants to hear again among the contents of 60 minutes, unless he is recording the program while he is hearing it.
Therefore, when a user wants to hear again the desired music piece, he is forced to execute a very troublesome operation because he must determine whether the voice signal reproduced by the high speed reproducing mode is what he wants to hear again through the fast speed reproducing operation, for example, from the starting part of the recorded area.
The inventors of the present invention have presented in the Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. HEI 9-344748, as related art, the technique to record a character information to a recording medium simultaneously with the audio signal as the main data during the dubbing operation of the broadcasting in which the character broadcasting (teletext) is multiplexed.
According to this technique, as the recording operation, the character information as subdata can be recorded to the disk together with the audio signal as the main data, and moreover, the recorded audio signal as the main data can also be reproduced during the reproducing operation and the character information as the above subdata can also be displayed synchronously. That is, a program information as the subdata regarding the main data can also be observed during reproduction of the recorded audio signal as the main data by enabling the recording and reproducing of the character information. Thereby, for example, names of the broadcast music pieces can be known at the time of reproduction.
However, when it is requested to make an access to a part of the music pieces recorded during the reproducing operation, troublesome search operation is also required as explained above and consideration is not taken into account to this problem.
Considering the problems explained above, it is an object of the present invention to realize smooth operation performance during the reproducing mode by simultaneously recording the audio information broadcast by the character multiplex broadcasting and character information to a recording medium and conducting track dividing process in the adequate timing for the operation of latter reproducing mode.